Duddingston Payroll / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Duddingston Payroll · 5 Jan 2026 10:00
Daniel told Duddingston Payroll that daily users had fallen to eight or nine of forty. Fraser questioned the £40k cost per client and deferred renewal until usage turns round. Lorna wants usage fixed first.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Daniel told Duddingston Payroll that daily users had fallen to eight or nine of forty. Fraser questioned the £40k cost per client and deferred renewal until usage turns round. Lorna wants usage fixed first.
What happened: Daniel opened the Growth QBR by stating usage was down by roughly two fifths on the prior quarter. A small group asks most of the questions.
Customer view: Lorna said client managers go to the payroll system first and some do not trust B-Viz is up to date. Euan thought a change on their side before Christmas might have affected the feed.
Commercial: Fraser wants a per-client figure with its base before he will discuss price. He will not talk about renewal until he knows who owns the account and has seen usage recover.
Watch: The contract runs to 9 Feb 2026 and renews on 10 Feb 2026. Daniel owes the connector check, the data request, afternoon refresher sessions and bringing Priya to the next call.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
Usage decline before renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
negative
Voice
decision-maker
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel to check the connector Euan raised and report back by the end of the week.
- Daniel to send the data list for the per-client view and propose afternoon refresher slots early next week.
- Daniel to bring Priya to the next call and re-pull usage before the renewal call.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daily use of eight or nine against forty Growth licences, with a few people asking most questions, leaves the subscription hard to justify.
- Client managers doubt the data is current, and a customer-side system change may have affected a connector.
- Fraser will not discuss renewal until usage recovers and wants a per-client figure with its base.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- A refresher for quiet client managers focused on daily tasks could rebuild use.
- A per-client value case built with Lorna's client counts could answer Fraser's cost question.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforMorning, everyone, and happy new year. Thank you all for making the time on a Monday, I know it's a busy one. Let me just check who has joined. Lorna, Fraser, Euan, I can see all three of you. Can you hear me alright?
Lorna CairnsWe can hear you fine, Daniel. Happy new year. I'll be honest, my week is all deadlines. We've got the first pay dates of the year landing on Friday, so I'm watching the clock a bit.- Daniel OkaforUnderstood, and we'll keep to the hour. Euan, you're on mute, I think. There you go.
Euan DrummondSorry, yes. Morning. Hello, all. The laptop decided to update itself over the holiday, so bear with me if the screen share is slow.
Fraser MoncrieffMorning. Before we start, what's changed since the last review? I'd rather hear the headline first.- Daniel OkaforThat's fair, Fraser, and I'll be straight with you. The headline is that usage has come down. This is the quarterly review for the Growth subscription, you're licensed for forty users, and on a typical day lately only eight or nine of you are actually in there. That's down by roughly two fifths on the quarter before. I'd rather we talk about that openly than have you find it in a report.
- Fraser MoncrieffTwo fifths. Right.
- Lorna CairnsThat's more than I expected. I thought it had dipped over December, but not that much.
- Daniel OkaforDecember is always a strange month for a payroll bureau, so some of it will be that. But I don't want to hide behind the calendar. Let me share my screen and show you what we see, and then I'd really like to hear from you how the team is finding it.
- Daniel OkaforSo this is the usage view. Along the bottom is the last few months. You can see the line climbing nicely after go-live last February, a good plateau through the spring and summer, and then it tails off. The questions asked follow the same shape.
- Euan DrummondCan I ask, is that people or is it a few people asking a lot? Because I know a couple of the client managers use it all day, and some have barely opened it since the autumn.
- Daniel OkaforGood question, and honestly it's both. A small group are asking most of the questions. That's a risk in itself, because if one of them is off or moves on, the number drops further. The rest are logging in rarely.
- Lorna CairnsRight. Well, I can tell you what I'm hearing from the client managers. When's their pay date, that's the first thing they care about. If the answer to a client's query is quicker in the payroll system itself, they go there. They only come to B-Viz when they want the whole picture, the calls and the fees and the deadlines together.
- Daniel OkaforThat's useful, Lorna, and it's exactly the reason you bought it. The whole picture per employer. So the question is why they aren't reaching for it more often.
- Lorna CairnsSome of them say they don't trust it's up to date. One of them told me she'd rather check the other system than be wrong in front of an employer.
- Euan DrummondThat might be me, to be fair. We changed a couple of things on our side before Christmas. I don't know if it affected the feed.
- Daniel OkaforOkay, that's helpful to know. Just to close the loop on freshness, I've looked at the records indexed and they've kept moving, so nothing has stopped loading as far as I can see. You raised one ticket in the last month and it was routine, nothing urgent. But I'll check the connector Euan is thinking of properly and come back to you by the end of the week.
- Euan DrummondThanks. I can send you what we changed. It was only a small thing, but I'd rather you saw it.
- Fraser MoncrieffDaniel, can I come in. We're paying thirty-nine thousand six hundred pounds a year for this. If a fifth of the licences are being used, I need to understand what that is per client we serve, and whether it's worth it. What's that per client?
- Daniel OkaforThat's the right way to look at it, Fraser. Thirty-nine thousand six hundred is the annual figure on your order form, and it's what we've invoiced, so those match. I haven't worked out a per-employer number with you, and I'd rather do it properly with your own client counts than guess one now. Could we do that together?
- Fraser MoncrieffFine. Send me what you'd need from us. I'm not accepting a figure without its base.
- Lorna CairnsI'll help with that, Fraser. The client numbers are with my team anyway.
- Daniel OkaforThank you, Lorna. Now, there's one more thing I wanted to put on the table, which is the renewal. Your contract runs to 9 Feb 2026 and it renews on 10 Feb 2026. I'd like us to use the next few weeks well rather than leave it to the last minute.
- Fraser MoncrieffWho owns our account at your end now? I've had emails from a couple of different people.
- Daniel OkaforPriya Raman is your account executive and she owns the commercial side, the contract and the terms. I'm your customer success manager, so adoption, these reviews, and the renewal conversation sit with me. I can bring Priya to the next call if that helps.
- Fraser MoncrieffPlease do. I won't talk about renewal without knowing who I'm dealing with. Let's see it at renewal, once I've seen the usage turn round.
- Lorna CairnsI'd like to fix the usage first, Daniel. Let's get it right first time. If the client managers don't trust it, no price conversation will matter.
- Daniel OkaforCompletely agree. So here is what I'd suggest. One, I check the connector Euan mentioned and tell you what I find. Two, I run a short refresher with the client managers who've gone quiet, focused on the things they actually do each day, like deadlines and fee queries together. Three, we pull the usage again before the renewal call and look at it honestly.
- Euan DrummondThe refresher would help. Half of them were trained at go-live and haven't looked since. Could we do it in the afternoon? Mornings are payroll runs.
- Lorna CairnsAfternoons, yes. And not Thursday or Friday, with the pay dates.
- Daniel OkaforNoted. I'll propose a couple of afternoon slots early next week and you tell me which suits. Anything else on usage before I stop sharing?
- Fraser MoncrieffNo. Just the per-client figure and who's my contact. That's all I need from today.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood. So just to close the loop: I'll email Euan about the connector, send Fraser and Lorna the list of what I need for the per-client view, set up the afternoon sessions, and bring Priya to the next conversation. Thank you all for being so open. Best wishes to everyone for the first pay dates on Friday.
- Lorna CairnsThanks, Daniel. Speak soon.
- Euan DrummondCheers. I'll send that over today.
- Fraser MoncrieffGoodbye.
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